KOTA KINABALU, May 2 — Sabah politician Datuk Hajiji Noor should remember that he is now with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) and not Umno, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman said today after the former attacked the government’s bid to register undocumented residents in the Borneo state.
Azis also clarified that the documentation drive was only a proposal to address the stateless problem in the country and not an attempt to make citizens out of illegal immigrants flooding Sabah.
He added that if approved, the proposed programme would come under the purview of the Home Ministry and that its minister was Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the president of PPBM.
“The programme is still at the proposal stage, and if implemented, it will come under the Home Ministry, headed by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,” said Azis, who is also Parti Warisan Sabah youth chief.
“So who is Hajiji attacking? Shafie, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Warisan or his own party?
“Why is he talking like he’s in Umno? Behaving like Umno but dressed like PPBM? Is he a trojan horse between Warisan and Bersatu and Pakatan Harapan? What is he trying to do?” he asked in a statement.
Azis was responding to a video of Hajii’s speech at a PPBM event spreading on social media.
In the video, the Sabah PPBM coordinator said he disagrees with the government’s plan to document illegal immigrants, insisting that any documentation must come from the country of origin, and that the state government has no business giving out documents to these people.
“I want to emphasis that the state or federal government has never issued a directive on the issuance of documents to illegals — meaning those who enter the country illegally. Those we arrest, charge and deport.
“If he means the stateless community in Sabah, the people who were born and grew up in Sabah and have become third or fourth generation here — where the Philippines don’t recognise them as their own — then this problem also occurs in Peninsula and is being raised by PH MPs in Parliament,” Hajiji said in the video.
It was announced that stateless children whose parent’s origins are unknown need to be given document in order to attend school — but no citizenship will be given out.
“Just a document so we have their data and numbers, something that the Umno government before failed to accomplish,” he said, adding that the programme would be the prerogative of the federal government and not the state.
“Hajiji may have forgotten that the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah is the result of Umno/BN. True or not, he should clarify that before accusing Warisan,” said Azis.
Despite decades of politicising, Sabah still has a significant illegal immigrant problem due to its porous borders and proximity to its neighbouring countries. Efforts are ongoing to deport illegals back but the state is also home to a sizeable community of stateless people —those born to parents of different origins and are undocumented or whose families have lived here over generations.
